Happy Birthday Spencer!

Happy Birthday Spencer! We spent the holidays in California this year, so we got to do a little early morning celebration with Spencer's mom.

He had a little help from Sydney opening his presents :)

Spencer had some fun building that giant Lego tower the night before while the rest of us were watching How To Train Your Dragon.

Happy #28 honey! We love you!

Changes...Big Ones

This past week has been a doozy. I have been sick for what feels like 382,347,293 years.... it morphed from a sore throat, to losing my voice, to coughing/runny nose/upset stomach, then to a massive headache last night. I took my first ever sick day last Friday, and luckily have had snow days both yesterday and today. This is Spencer's first week of break, so he's been a champion at taking care of Sydney so I can sleep. And now here we are on Tuesday, and I finally feel like I'm on the up and up.

Last Tuesday when I lost my voice, I still went to work even though I probably shouldn't have. Almost all of my kids (even the 1st and 2nd graders) gave me some sort of tip like, "You should try to cough," or, "You should get a drink of water," or, "Maybe you should try to clear your throat." Totally cracked me up. During my lunch break, I talked to Spencer and he told me he'd forwarded me an email he's gotten from his detailer telling us possible billets that were available for when we go on active duty. We had a list of 5 to choose from (we didn't really even expect to get a choice), and we were freaking out that Okinawa, Japan was an option!

We felt like it was an opportunity that we didn't want to pass up, even though it's brutally far away. It only took a day between us telling the detailer we wanted Japan and him saying that we were a "go." We'll be moving out there sometime in the early summer, and we'll be there for 3 years. At this point, it all very surreal.

Several people that I've told have already sent me links to other friend's blogs who were stationed out there, or have told me about other people who lived there and loved it. Being able to read about other people's positive experiences has been so nice. We are grateful, excited, and nervous to see what life will be like on the other side of the world! I'm sure it will help that Okinawa just so happens to be a tropical paradise :)

Holy Snow!

Ironically, we had a lake effect snow advisory from Saturday until Tuesday night at 7pm. I thought that might mean a snow day for me, but no such luck. Then today (Wednesday) came and WHAM! it snowed nonstop all day. I've been sick with a sore throat/generally crappy feeling since the weekend, then lost my voice on Tuesday, and now have a cough, so I felt like those were all good reasons to not go outside to shovel the driveway. So before dinner, Spencer and Sydney suited up to go clear the snow (in the dark, no less!).

Sydney was happy to show off her monkey gloves for the camera. I was happy her snow pants from last year still fit!

Spencer was trying to help her hold her own "shovel," which was difficult because she doesn't quite know how to get her thumbs into her mittens.

About 10 minutes after they went outside, I went into the basement and Spencer opened the garage door and yelled, "Sydney needs to go potty!" Of course, she had to pee after I put like 30 layers of clothes on her. Needless to say, we didn't make it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Spencer scheduled his written boards for Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, and when he was finished (hooray!!), we headed down to Marysville for Thanksgiving. Shauna and Dan came too, as well as Dan's parents. It was a full house and a great time!

Getting ready to dig in. Everything was delicious!

We made these turkey hats for the kids, and Sydney absolutely didn't want to wear hers. Oh well, I tried...

A Peek of Sydney at 2 Years Old

Sydney went to the doctor the day before her 2nd birthday. I was relieved she didn't have any immunizations to get, but was kind of bummed when I remembered that she needed a flu shot... just one more reason for her to cry at the doctors's office. I tried to prep her a little this time, telling her that the doctor was going to listen to her heart, look in her ears, push her belly, etc., but she still had a meltdown when I had to stand her on the scale for the nurse. Thank goodness I had fruit snacks in my purse.

Luckily, we survived the experience, and are happy to have a healthy, growing girl. She weighs 27 lbs. (50th percentile) and is in the 70th percentile for height.

I have been horrible about documenting what she can do, especially since the list just grows so fast these days. She's pretty independent, but if she can't do something, she's quick to say, "I need help!" At 2 years old, Sydney:

• climbs in her high chair, and does the buckle (which she also likes to play with when she's not sitting in her high chair).
• wipes her face and hands with a wipe and gets them pretty clean!
• reaches the buttons on the DVD player...blast.
• turns the TV on/off all the time.
• loves to push buttons in general.
• can finish the lines to almost all of the Mother Goose rhymes that we read frequently.
• loves to sing- especially in her crib at nap time before she falls asleep.
• will say, "We sing at church!" if I sing a song that she sang in Nursery.
• says, "Follow the prophet, Mommy!" when she sees a picture of President Monson.
• wanders around the room when we say family prayers, and never folds her arms or closes her eyes.
• tells other adults (our friends, her nursery leaders), "I want hold you."
• still sleeps with 2 binkies, and swaps them every few minutes.
• expects fruit snacks whenever we go to a store, church, etc. She also asks for them for breakfast on a regular basis.
• loves to read books.
• is SASSY! If she is having a tantrum, her body will either be a limp noodle or stiff as a board, both with lots of screaming.
• usually has to go to time out because she hit me or Spencer (most often in the face).
• hates getting her teeth brushed, which means it's painful for all of us.
• likes to "cock" (talk) to Grandma B. and Grandma H. on her "phones."
• takes off her socks, then goes and puts them in her top drawer.
• loves to run and jump.
• asks, "Where Daddy go?" several times each day.
• has crazy, wild hair that looks cutest in pig tails.
• knows most of the ABC song.
• can unzip her jacket and take it off.
• is a little tornado when it comes to making messes around our house!
• likes to boss me around, like a typical 1st child would. When we're reading stories she'll say, "Sit right here mommy," "Hold it!" (the book), or when I tell her to do something she doesn't want to do, she'll say, "No, mommy do it."
• is our favorite kid in the whole world!

Happy Birthday to You!

Shauna had called me a few days before Sydney's birthday to tell me that Dan had to be in Cleveland on the 4th, and could they come hang out with us that day. I was so excited that they were going to be with us for the celebration, and when they got here, Shauna told me to come outside because she had a surprise for me. Then my Mom stepped out of the car! That made the whole day even better!!

When Spencer got home, we picked up some dinner from Melt. Yum!

We thought it was way better the second time around compared to our first experience.

We invited a few friends over for her birthday party. Her buds Callie, Jack, Anderson, Addie, and Macie all came, plus cousins James and Benji. Add in everyone's parents and my family, and we had quite a packed house!

Macie & James

She tried so hard to blow out these candles, but her "fffffffff" just didn't cut it, so I had to help.

While Nonnie and Dan cut up the cake and dished out ice cream, Sydney opened presents.

Spencer kindly modeled this cupcake apron I made for her.

I love how attentive all the other kids were while she opened her presents.

As you can see, every kid in the room slowly got their cake and ice cream while she opened gifts. Pretty soon Syd started pointing to their plates and saying, "I want dat."

So we hooked her up, and then she was happy.

Happy 2nd Birthday to my sweet girl!

Grandma B. Comes to Visit!

Grandma B. flew out to visit us from October 28 - November 2. She came to see Sydney for her (almost) 2nd birthday. We hadn't seen her for over a year, so she was surprised to see how big Sydney is!

We picked her up at the airport, then stopped for dinner at Chipotle in Steelyard Commons.

Yummy! Sydney wasn't shy about mooching all of Grandma B.'s rice.

That night, Barbara hung out at our house while Sydney slept so Spencer and I could play in our church volleyball league. A few members of our team couldn't make it, so it was just me, Spencer, and Garn against a team rotating in 8 people. We still totally won!!

Barbara and Sydney got to spend lots of time together since Spencer had school and I had work for most of the days she was visiting. I got frequent picture texts at work like this:

I'm pretty sure she was in heaven with all the attention.

On Friday night we went shopping, and Sydney had fun crawling around under the clothes.

After shopping, we went down to Case to watch Spencer's dodge ball tournament. He played on another team last winter, and he was so disappointed that they didn't get very far. This time it was way more fun to watch because they ended up winning it all!

Dodgeball Tournament Champions

Back Row: Adam, Spencer, Art, Jason

Front Row: Doug, Trent, Brad Geoff, Alex, Chuck

Spencer told me their team name was "The Buccinators," which made me laugh out loud because nothing says "intimidating" like a chewing muscle. Love the dental student nerdiness in that.

Spencer, Barbara, Me, Sydney

On Saturday morning, we drove out to Patterson's to show Grandma B. our favorite fall hangout. Unfortunately, we were ill prepared for the FREEZING weather! Although the peak of fall colors had past, there were still enough leaves on the trees that we could enjoy the pretty scenery.

Our loot: apples, kettlecorn, and donuts.

Eating a pumpkin donut by the pumpkins.

We also drove over to the Family Fun Fest to play outside for a while. We only lasted for a few hours, but we had a great time.

Sydney was really excited to wear her gloves.

Sydney got to go on her first pony ride on this miniature horse named Cracker.

I was surprised at how brave she was when we started walking. We just did one lap, and by the end she was definitely ready to be done. But she sure loved sitting on that little saddle.

Spencer took Barbara for a spin on this scooter. I think they're kind of hard to control since you steer with your feet, but she was a natural.

Later that night, we did Trunk-or-Treating in the church parking lot.

Sydney dressed up as Cinderella, but she refused to wear her crown.

Thank goodness for Sundays! After church, we took naps, talked, and watched several episodes of "The Apprentice" online. We'd never really watched it before, but Barbara got us hooked.

Monday was Barbara's last full day with us, so we planned to do a pre-birthday celebration with her then. She and Sydney made some cute Halloween cupcakes, which we used as her birthday cake that night.

Sydney had fun putting the baking cups in the muffin pan.

She does smile in pictures... just not for her Mama!

We started celebrating with a yummy dinner at CPK. After we were done eating, Sydney was being quite the ham and making lots of silly faces.

First she showed Grandma how she can close her eyes. I ask her to do this all the time because I think it's hilarious.

Then she showed us her "happy face."

And then her sad face. So silly.

After dinner we went to Chuck-E-Cheese for some rides and games. This was Sydney's first time going there, and she loved it.

"What can I do next?"

She was a big fan of the carousel.

And she got to go cruisin' with Mr. Cheese himself.

Playing a bouncing ball game with Grandma B.

Spencer and I rocked out on Guitar Hero, after which we quickly sanitized our hands because those guitars were grea-sy. Sick.

We did cupcakes and presents when we got home. Sydney loves singing Happy Birthday to You, so I knew she would be excited for it.

Two candles!!

She blew them out all by herself :)

Then it was presents,

presents,

presents.

Thanks for spoiling us so much Grandma B.! It was so fun to have you with us!